A moon, a hill, a tree, and three bats. Print this one for a long evening at the table.
A large full moon fills much of the upper page above a single rounded hill. On the hill stands a crooked bare tree with a few branches reaching sideways, and three small bats cross the open sky. The moon is the biggest blank area on the sheet, which makes it a good place to practice a light, even layer of color, while the bats and branches finish in a few minutes. Ages five and up. Crayons for the moon, a sharp pencil for the twigs.
Where moonlight comes from
The moon makes no light of its own. What reaches the ground on a clear night is sunlight bouncing off a surface roughly as reflective as worn asphalt, which is why moonlight looks silver-gray rather than warm. The moon sends back only about a tenth of the sunlight that hits it.
It looks brightest when it is full, because we see the whole sunlit side at once. It looks larger near the horizon, though that is an illusion created when the moon sits beside rooftops and trees.
Coloring and printing tips
- Print at 100% scale, black and white, on US Letter. A4 works with "fit to page" selected.
- Copy paper (20 lb / 80 gsm) for crayons and pencils, cardstock (65 lb / 160 gsm) for markers.
- Build the moon in light, even circles rather than pressing hard in one spot, then leave a few pale patches for craters.
- Keep the sky dark and the moon white, or flip it: a pale sky with a gray moon reads as dusk instead of midnight.
If the bats are a favorite, the ghost family page shares the same open sky, and the scarecrow page suits a daytime field. More are listed on the Halloween coloring pages hub.
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